Introductory guide to using Bitcoin Core through the command line
This document is under development.
What is a binary?
Difference between a binary and an "app".
What binaries are included with Bitcoin Core? Depends on which OS.
How to find the binaries?
Differences between the bitcoin-qt and bitcoind binaries
## Install the core dependencies
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autotools-dev automake pkg-config bsdmainutils python3
## Install the second set of dependencies
sudo apt-get install libevent-dev libboost-dev
## Install sqlite (for descriptor wallets)
sudo apt install libsqlite3-dev
## Install the qt graphical user interface dependencies
sudo apt-get install libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libtool autotools-dev automake pkg-config bsdmainutils python3 libevent-dev libboost-dev libsqlite3-dev libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools
#sudo apt-get install libboost-all-devgit clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
cd bitcoin/## Change to the most recent version number.
git checkout $(git tag | sort -V | grep -vE "rc|test|final" | tail -1)
## Auto-generate the configure script.
./autogen.sh
## Check the dependencies and create the Makefile.
./configure
## Build Bitcoin Core using all CPU cores.
make -j "$(($(nproc)+1))"
## Check the integrity of the build.
make -j "$(($(nproc)+1))" checkpython3 test/functional/test_runner.py --extended## Install the Xcode command-line utilities.
xcode-select --install
## Install brew, a third-party package manager.
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
## Install dependencies
brew install automake berkeley-db@4 boost libevent libtool pkg-config qrencode qt@5## Install tor
brew install tor torsocks
## Start the tor service
brew services start tor
## Verify that tor is both "Running" and "Loaded". You should see a response like the following:
## <usere>@<computer> ~ % brew services info tor
## tor (homebrew.mxcl.tor)
## Running: ✔
## Loaded: ✔
## Schedulable: ✘
## User: <user_name>
## PID: <process_id>
## <user>@<computer> ~ %
brew services info torThere are many different options for cloning.
We'll go through a few, each followed by a cd ("change directory") to change directories into the cloned repository directory.
Basic clone (into a directory with the same name as the repository):
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
cd bitcoin/You don't actually have to include the .git extension, for example:
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
cd bitcoin/If you set up Tor, adding torsocks before the git clone command for added privacy. However, macOS won't let you use the standard git due to Apple's System Integrity Protection. We need to install a second copy of git using brew, for example:
## Use brew to install an alternate copy of git
brew install git
## Clone the repository by running git with torsocks
torsocks /opt/homebrew/Cellar/git/*/bin/git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
cd bitcoin/If you have limited network bandwidth or storage, add --single-branch --depth 1 to save space by cloning only the master branch with no history, for example:
## Clone the master branch no history. In my test, the amount of data transferred is reduced over 90% from about 120 MB to 11MB.
git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
cd bitcoin/Clone into a different directory by passing in an additional argument, for example:
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git projects/bitcoin/
cd projects/bitcoin/Combining all of these into one command, we can clone the main branch with no history over tor into a specific directory:
torsocks /opt/homebrew/Cellar/git/*/bin/git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin projects/bitcoin/
cd projects/bitcoin/## Change to the most recent version number.
git checkout $(git tag | sort -V | grep -vE "rc|test|final" | tail -1)
## Auto-generate the configure script.
./autogen.sh
## Check the dependencies and create the Makefile. Tell the compiler to ignore warnings in external libraries used by Bitcoin Core.
./configure --enable-suppress-external-warnings
## Build (compile) Bitcoin Core. Speed up this step by using all CPU cores with the `-j` argument. For example, if `sysctl -n hw.physicalcpu` returns 8, use ` -j 8`.
make -j "$(($(sysctl -n hw.physicalcpu)+1))"
## (Optional/Educational) Verify that the binaries we will use exist in the src/ directory.
ls src/{bitcoind,bitcoin-cli,qt/bitcoin-qt}
## (Optional/Educational) Check the build using all of the CPU cores.
make check -j "$(($(sysctl -n hw.physicalcpu)+1))"
## (Optional/Educational) Run the extended functional tests to make sure everything is working properly. This optional step will take a long time.
python3 test/functional/test_runner.py --extendedYou don't have to actually install Bitcoin Core, but it makes things easier by not having to refernce the src/ directory every time you want to use bitcoin-cli.
## Copy the binaries to /usr/local/bin/ and additional support files to other directories.
## If you're curious, pay attention to the output from this command to see where these files are being installed.
sudo make install
## Look for the binaries in the /usr/local/bin/ directory.
ls /usr/local/bin/bitcoin*## Run the GUI version of Bitcoin Core with server mode enabled.
## Note: After running this command, press `return` to get a prompt again.
bitcoin-qt --server & disown
## Test the cli
bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfocd ../
rm -rf bitcoin/Meh.
The following script will tell you how far back your Bitcoin Core blocks data goes.
## Set "asdf" on the next line to your binary directory
## For example, if your binary is located at ~/bitcoin/bin/,
## set binary_directory to $HOME/bitcoin/bin
binary_directory="$HOME/bitcoin/bin"
## Use bitcoin-cli to find the blockchain info
## Save the response as a variable blockchain_info
blockchain_info="$binary_directory"/bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo
## asdf